Wilmington, NC News

Group protests Myrtle Grove Christian School anti-gay policy

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — It has been just days since Myrtle Grove Christian School announced in a letter they are adopting a new biblical morality policy that could keep some families from attending.

Now, some community members are speaking out, and protesting the policy.

In a letter signed by the head of the school, Stacey Miller, the school reserves the right to refuse admission or kick out a student “if the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home or the activities of the student are counter to or are in opposition to the biblical lifestyle the school teaches.”

The letter says that includes homosexual or bisexual activity.

“I find it troublesome that a place that’s formed to educate our future is teaching them that certain people aren’t welcome in their environment,” protester Tara Smith-Russell said.

Smith-Russell and her daughter Maddie stood together across the street from Myrtle Grove Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

As attendees filled the church to hear the sounds of Christian music, Maddie and her mother took to the streets to protest.

“I have friends that are gay, and there is really no difference,” Maddie said. “They just love their same sex, and that’s not right to not allow them to do certain things that we can.”

Eric Anderson, a member of the church and parent to a Myrtle Grove Christian School student says in church everyone is welcome.

“Jesus gave his life so that everybody could have acceptance,” Anderson said.

He says school is a different matter, because it affects how his children are raised.

“The school should have rules and standards and things like that of what your kind of that foundation your building,” Anderson added.

But he and his wife say it has nothing to do with hate.

“There was no hate,” Megan Anderson said. “It’s just biblical, and that’s what’s important to us.”

“If there are some folks that don’t believe in what this school stands for and what they teach, it’s their right not to go there,” the Andersons said.

The policy will go into effect at Myrtle Grove Christian School in the 2014-2015 school year.

All families applying for admission or re-enrolling at the school will be required to sign the policy.

This entry was posted
on Sunday, November 17th, 2013 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Wilmington.
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